Highway May Cut Through 43 Businesses

Edgewood Could Lose $66,000 In Revenue

EDGEWOOD — For city officials and business owners in this south Orange County city, a proposed six-lane toll road linking downtown to the Orlando International Airport is a wolf in sheep's clothing.

Officials of the Orlando-Orange County Expressway Authority tout the $213 million expressway, known as the Central Connector, as a way to ease traffic clogging Orange Avenue, Orange Blossom Trail and State Road 436.

City officials see it differently. They say the 5-mile highway will cut through so many lots and businesses that the city could lose more than 12 percent of its service fees and property taxes.

The lost revenue - more than $66,000 - translates into three police officers' salaries or another city hall expansion, said City Clerk Linda Brewer. Both are major expenses in a city that for three years has cut slivers from its budget just to keep operating.

''Unless Edgewood grows in the next five years . . . it would certainly have an impact on a city the size of Edgewood,'' Brewer said.

The biggest single effect on the city will be the expected move of the Wayne Densch beer distributing company, which has been on Holden Avenue since 1972. The connector would go through the distributor's property.

The city also anticipates having some responsibility for traffic on the expressway. ''We'll probably have to put another police car up there to help with traffic or something, you never know,'' said Brewer.

Last month, the city learned it was in a position to stop the highway. State law says the authority must have approval from a city before buying right of way. The authority said it did not want to fight the city, but it would if it had to.

Last week, authority officials presented the city with alternatives. They showed three ways the authority could build the interchange in the city and suggested sites for the toll booth outside the city. The city opposed the original proposal to put the booth at Stratemeyer and Orange avenues.

City council members offered little comment.

The council is split on how to deal with the Goliath road-building agency. Some are arming themselves for a fight. Others want to see what compromise the authority may offer.

''The ball's in their court,'' said council member John Pancari after the meeting.

Mayor Dorris Bobber is worried about the survival of the city, which has only 2,000 residents. The solution may be to grow through aggressive annexations, she recently told the council.

Bobber wants to avoid a confrontation with the agency.

''I don't want a lawsuit. I want to negotiate with them and get what's best for Edgewood,'' the mayor said. ''I can't imagine them not being able to go with this road.''

Bill Gwynn, director of the authority, said his agency hopes to have a final proposal for Edgewood residents ''within the next couple of weeks.''

Although the meeting was the first public presentation of the interchange alternatives, Gwynn said the authority always had planned to offer them options. Two new proposals to put the toll booth outside Edgewood, however, ''came from a direct request by the city of Edgewood,'' he said.

The connector would chew up 43 businesses in its path in Edgewood.

Wayne Densch Inc. has 192 employees, almost all from outside the Edgewood area. It is the largest business affected by the highway - the city will collect more than $16,000 in property and equipment taxes from the company this year.

Kim Russell, finance manager for Wayne Densch, would not disclose specific plans but said the company could not stay at the site under any of the three alternative interchanges the authority has proposed. Two of the ramps would cut through the Densch site, a third would lop off most of the parking lot.

''If they're going to put a bulldozer out front, I don't think we'll have a choice about moving,'' Russell said. ''This road is sort of making up our minds for us.''

Mary Eide owns a safety supply company in the path of the connector. She has owned the business since 1977 and, except for part-time help from her husband, is the only employee.

Eide believes more expressways are needed in the Orlando area. But she has few alternatives for relocating her business. She says the money the authority offers her will determine whether she will move.

''This is our retirement,'' says Eide, 58, who moved to the warehouse site off Orange Avenue in 1986. ''Everything's tied up in this.''

Ironically, some businesses might benefit from the expressway.

Buck Buholz owns an auto repair shop on Orange Avenue directly across from the entrance of Harbor Island Road. His business may be more visible to motorists who otherwise might not come through Edgewood, he said.

''If we can put a sign on the back of our property, it could probably benefit,'' said Buholz, who has been at the site since 1982.

The Central Connector would begin at the Michigan Street exit of I-4, run east around Lake Holden, parallel the CSX Transportation railroad tracks and end at the Bee Line Expressway. The authority would widen Division Avenue to six lanes between Michigan and Kaley streets and to four lanes north to Gore Street.

Officials plan to begin acquiring land for the project in October. Construction is set to begin in June 1991 and be completed in February 1993.